Last updated
17 January 2010

"Lose weight fast"......do advertised claims work?

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We all see the 'quick fix' weight loss advertisements, but what do we think?

Many people want to lose weight quickly and turn to the internet to find a quick fix solution. There are many websites which try to suck you in with a quick fix diet, exercise, pill, tea drink, fat loss secrets book.......the list goes on.

The vast majority of these sites are hoping to make you believe that their product or advice works and it is the only way to succeed in losing weight. Most of them are just wanting you to buy their product and will say whatever it takes to make the sale.

In fact, sites that ultimately result in you having to buy something that sounds too good to be true, or sounds like a miracle solution should probably be avoided. As the saying goes, if it looks or sounds too good to be true, it usually is!

"As the saying goes, if it looks or sounds too good to be true, it usually is...... and this is particularly true of many advertised weight loss quick fixes!"

The truth is that only way to lose weight is to expend more calories than you consume. There is no quick fix.

Although the human body is remarkably complicated, the science of weight loss is not (comparatively). Most dietitians and health practitioners agree that a healthy rate of weight loss is around 1lb per week. 1lb of body fat contains 3,500 calories so in order to lose 1lb of body fat in a week, your net calorie deficit (i.e. calories consumed less calories expended) needs to be -3,500 over the week, which is equivalent to a deficit of 500 calories per day. This can be achieved by consuming fewer calories or burning more calories, but ideally, a combination of both - see our article on metabolism which talks about the importance of keeping metabolism up when trying to lose weight.

To lose weight and keep it off you'll need to make permanent changes to your diet and physical activity patterns. Think carefully about your daily routine. Keeping a food diary may help you to identify patterns in your eating behaviour. This will help you to decide on realistic changes you need to make. Keeping track of the calories you consume and expend is difficult to do unless you have a food and exercise diary in which to log all this information. Without this information, it is almost impossible to follow a weight loss plan - it is a bit like driving a car with a blind-fold on and hoping that you ultimately get to your destination.

Purple Weight Loss provides all its members with a food and exercise diary for FREE. The food diary has a comprehensive food database to help you to estimate the calories that you have consumed along with an exercise diary that has a database of over 600 exercises (from doing a run to mowing the lawn) to provide you with guidance on how many calories you have burned. The weight loss plan that you can set up along with progress and performance charts are also invaluable to keep you on the road to success.

Note: You may lose more weight in some weeks than in others, but as long as your weight continues to decrease overall there's no need to worry. It is always worth referring back to your food and exercise diary to compare your successful weeks with your less successful ones as it could be that you ate a little more or did a little less exercise in the less successful weeks.